nurse-jackie &laquo; WordPress.com Tag Feedhttp://en.wordpress.com/tag/nurse-jackie/
Feed of posts on WordPress.com tagged "nurse-jackie"Tue, 20 Mar 2018 02:17:11 +0000http://en.wordpress.com/tags/enhttps://galaxycats.wordpress.com/go/tv/waiting-in-vain-the-redemption-arcs-that-never-came/
Mon, 01 Jan 2018 17:20:35 +0000Karurahttps://galaxycats.wordpress.com/go/tv/waiting-in-vain-the-redemption-arcs-that-never-came/When we think of TV protagonists, we usually picture a hero – a morally righteous person seeking to make the world a better place. And when they don’t start out that way, we expect to accompany them on a journey of self-improvement, in which they discover important things such as love, happiness and the true meaning of friendship.

But not every main character takes that journey. In this article, I examine four protagonists whose redemption arcs never came – Tony Soprano, Jackie Peyton, Greg House and Bojack Horseman.

Tony Soprano

Let’s start with Tony Soprano. He’s a powerful mobster and a borderline (if not outright) sociopath who shows as little conscience when cheating on his wife as he does when ‘whacking’ a member of his own family. And yet he’s also a man who has regular sessions with a therapist because of a panic attacks, who gets upset by the departure of a pair of ducks living in his swimming pool. Thanks to James Gandolfini’s excellent performance – indeed, in each of these four cases it is the quality of the writing and acting that brings such depth and nuance to the character – we can’t help but like Tony Soprano on some level. And for a naive, first-time viewer of The Sopranos, surely this all means that, deep down, he’s good person with the proverbial heart of gold?

Except, of course, that he isn’t. There comes a point when watching The Sopranos where you have to wake up to the fact that Tony is an arsehole, and he’s going to remain an arsehole. He isn’t going to have some magical attack of conscience whereby he starts making amends of his misdeeds. Even if he wanted to, he can’t – his entire way of life is too deeply mired in his shady, criminal life. We forgave him killing the likes of Ralf Cifaretto, because, let’s face it, we all hated Ralf. But when Tony helps his beloved nephew and protégé Christopher to an early death, we have to re-evaluate our loyalties. Just as Melfi realises that she’s been fooled by Tony’s charm and smooth talk into believing she could help him, so do we as the audience have to accept that he is never, ever going to change.

The Sopranos is not about charting Tony’s redemption, and it was never meant to be. And for me, that’s why the cut-to-black ending is appropriate rather than infuriating. It doesn’t matter if Tony and his family get whacked in that restaurant or twenty years later. It doesn’t matter if we stop watching them now, or at some point in the future. We’ve already seen it all – and nothing is ever going to change.

Jackie Peyton

The eponymous Nurse Jackie seems like a good person. She’s an excellent nurse who does her best for her patients, even if it means bending the rules. She has no time for the stupidity of doctors, and she’s a stern but fair mentor to student nurse Zoe.

But of course, that’s not all there is to it. Having once hurt her back, Jackie is now dependent on pain medication, and her addiction shapes her entire life. In the very first episode, we see her fucking the hospital pharmacist – an extramarital affair, it turns out, which she conducts in order to get access to free medication.

As viewers, we’re presented with a struggle. Jackie, like Tony, is a likeable character, but at the same time we can’t overlook the fact that she manipulates and deceives everyone around her. The only way our dilemma could be resolved would be if Jackie realised the error of her ways, and set about trying to get clean.

Which she does – several times. But of course, each time it doesn’t last, and instead the entire series is not so much about Jackie’s redemption as it is her slow crash and burn towards an inevitable conclusion. When I think back to a scene where Jackie confesses to friends and family that she desperately needs help, I honestly don’t know if she really meant it, or if she was just telling them what she knew they wanted to hear. This is, after all, the woman who tricks her own AA sponsor into falling off the wagon just so that Jackie can check her into rehab.

Gregory House

Just like Jackie, House suffered an injury that ultimately left him addicted to pain medication. In House’s case, however, there’s never any doubt that he is an arsehole through and through. A genius, to be sure, but no less of an utter bastard because of it. He’s outrageously rude and difficult to everyone he meets, but because of his success rate in curing patients, he gets away with it.

Although House is a great character to watch, our reasons for wanting to see him become a better person are slightly different. With Tony and Jackie, there was a need to resolve an internal dilemma – we liked these people and wanted them to succeed, but couldn’t reconcile that with their morally dubious and outright criminal behaviours. How could we, as good, upstanding citizens, support such manipulative arseholes? The only way we could justify it was if they managed to redeem themselves, to prove themselves worthy in our eyes.

With House, the issue is more about just finding his behaviour difficult to watch. By and large, we consider ourselves to be nice people, and we’ve been brought up to be polite to others. When we see House being so rude to others, we can’t help but feel awkward about it. Yes, it may be happening between fictional people with no relation to ourselves, but a transference effect means that we get hit with all the attendant emotions anyway.

In the latter half of the show’s run, it seems as if House might finally be getting his act together. He is forced to come off the drugs after experiencing increasingly intrusive hallucinations, and even finally gets together with Cuddy after years of sexual tension. But it doesn’t last, and House is eventually found on the downward spiral again, ultimately crashing his car into Cuddy’s house.

BoJack Horseman

I first conceived of this article after watching BoJack season three, which ends with BoJack’s irresponsible actions causing the death of Sarah Lynn. Unlike the other shows on the list, however, BoJack has yet to finish airing, and certainly in season four he seems so preoccupied with the damage he does as to tread more carefully.

Maybe BoJack will be the one character on this list who ultimately finds redemption, but it’s definitely far too early to say. This is, after all, the horse who sabotaged his flatmate’s success because he couldn’t bear the thought of being left behind. The horse who came onto the daughter of an old flame, who has repeatedly and self-acknowledgedly sabotaged all of the good things in his life. Right now, he’s at a point where he’s too afraid to even let anything new into his life, lest he ruin it as well.

I identify a lot with the themes of depression and being stuck presented in BoJack. Because I know what it’s like to feel trapped and unable to get on with your life, I cheer on characters in similar situations who manage to slowly improve their lot. I’m always behind a character when they get out of their room and get a part-time job, and start taking the opportunities that life presents to them. Conversely, when they sabotage themselves, or ruin or deny those chances, it makes me sad and frustrated. I feel the same way with BoJack. I want to see him taking on new jobs and having new relationships, but usually he can’t help but ruin them.

Unhappily Ever After

Throughout this article, I’ve spoken about why we might want our TV anti-heroes to undergo their own personal redemption arcs. Often, their bad behaviour is painful and awkward to watch, and we want them to stop. Sometimes, we need them to prove that they are good people, so we can feel justified in liking them. Hopefully, we as viewers are also generally nice people who want to see the characters we like achieve happy and fulfilled lives.

But as we can see, that often doesn’t happen. In fact, for characters like these, it usually can’t happen. It’s not just that these characters are likely too far gone to ever redeem themselves – we as audiences could probably be forgiving of the most heinous crimes if we saw a glimmer of hope. It’s more that, if they did walk the path of redemption, what would be left?

The drama in all of these shows relies on their main character being broken people. Sustaining that brokenness for many seasons is often difficult – that’s why they tend to spiral into worse and worse situations, to keep us interested and coming back for more. And conversely, what would turn us off more than if those people fixed themselves, became inoffensive, even nice?

In one episode of House, Wilson suggests that House is afraid he would be nothing without his tortured genius. Would we, as the audience, find ourselves agreeing with that? Could we bear to watch a reformed and contrite Tony Soprano, or a genuinely recovering Nurse Jackie? We might find it a novelty for a few episodes, but it would not sustain our interest for long. We were drawn to these shows exactly because the main characters are dark, conflicted and morally ambiguous. As long as we enjoy watching their pain, they can never expect redemption.

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Sun, 27 Aug 2017 15:35:42 +0000Hey Mikey!https://heymikeyatl.com/go/celebrity-news/nurse-jackie-actor-haaz-sleiman-haazsleiman-comes-out-as-gay-and-a-bottom/2017 has proven to be quite a year rife with prejudice and intolerance, not outright seen sense the Civil Rights Era.

Thankfully, and bravely, in the face of such ignorance by being themselves and standing up for what is right through protest and declarations of truth. One of these people is Nurse Jackie actor, Haaz Sleiman, who has come out as gay–and a bottom!

via Just Jared

Actor Haaz Sleiman attends the American Cinematheque’s screening of Gomorrah sponsored by Artemide and Lamborghini held at The Egyptian Theatre on November 11, 2008 in Hollywood, California.“Gomorrah” at the Egyptian Theatre and at Ago Restaurant, Sponsored by Artemide and LamborghiniThe Egyptian TheatreHollywood, CA United StatesNovember 11, 2008Photo by Jesse Grant/WireImage.comTo license this image (56165278), contact WireImage.com

Haaz Sleiman, best known for his work on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie, has come out as gay in a new video on social media.

The 41-year-old actor said that his video was in response to a study that found that more LGBTQ Americans have been murdered in 2017 so far than in the entire year of 2016.

“I am a gay, Muslim, Arab-American man. And I’m going to take it even further: Not only am I gay, but I’m also a bottom. Not only am I a bottom, but I’m also a total bottom which means I like it up you know where,” Haaz said. “And I say this to all the homophobes living in the United States of America and across the globe… Why not? If you ever come to me, to kill me just because I’m gay… I will destroy you.”

“I might be gay and I might be a nice guy, but don’t get it twisted because I will f— you up,” he added.

This is quite a statement and a little too much information, but hey we all like what we like. Honestly, we always thought Haaz was gay, his Facebook video only confirms it. Still, being a gay, Lebanese-American, Muslim and coming out as a bottom on top of all that is quite a brave feat. Now, we are just waiting on his boyfriend information. You know he either has one or will soon! We will keep you posted!

I am coming apart at the seams. Husband is basically of the attitude in the above video. He sees me as weak and selfish. When I got active with my recovery in the past I was much more mobile and independent so whenever I felt like I couldn’t stand it anymore I could go to a meeting. I was involved in service projects and was able to stave off the worst of the cravings. Now that I am in the wheelchair full time it’s so much more difficult. Technically I can still drive but because we don’t have a wheelchair van I need help to get my chair or scooter in and out of the car which either means having someone take me or someone to put me and the chair in the car then someone at the other end to get my chair out and help me in it. That doesn’t really work when going to a meeting I haven’t been to before. So I am stuck.

I’ve been rewatching Nurse Jackie from the beginning again. I find myself even more fascinated by Eddie and Jackie. Feeling as guilty, angry and fucked up as I do right now, I almost wish I had an Eddie for a husband instead of a Kevin. Someone who would enable me when I needed to be messed up instead of hating me for it. I know that is beyond wrong. I know I am beyond a failure as a wife, mother, sister and friend. A garbage person. And obviously struggling with self loathing and despair. My head is fucked.

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Sat, 04 Mar 2017 21:49:29 +0000ethanisolomonhttps://ethanisolomon.wordpress.com/go/uncategorized/in-defense-of-homeland/Over the past ten years or so I’ve read a number of articles, and in most cases agreed, that Showtime has a habit of keeping shown on past their prime, sometimes well past. Now I may not be the best person to posit this theory because the Showtime shows that I enjoy in general are few and far between. However Homeland is one show that I will rise to defend.

Homeland would have been an excellent mini-series if there had been only one season. Even the first two seasons combined would have still made for a strong showing. But life isn’t about strong showings and ever escalating violence. Life is a series of ups and downs, and to borrow from another excellent show, Low Winter Sun, morality is perhaps at best a flashing strobe light. These are the issues that Homeland chose to confront in its inexorable television march forward.

Homeland never did quite recapture the glory of its first two seasons but it’s writers and producers chose not to fade into obscurity either. Any casual viewer can find relations to modern day events within its themes. If people tuned out Homeland it was because it was indeed too relevant. Its themes strike just a little too close to home and remind us of the very flawed and very real world that we live in.

If I had to compare another show on TV to Homeland it might be Mr. Robot. The difference is that Mr. Robot was so wild and fantastical that it becomes exactly that – a work of fantasy. Homeland chose to stay in the real world. In the real world things don’t stop once the more exciting bits are over. Life keeps going. Vigilance against evil requires it to be a part of a national conversation. It deserves that.

I can now officially say that I have a sparkly brain! On Wednesday I had my brain aneurysm “coiled” with platinum, so I’m feeling pretty swanky! The surgery went smoothly for which I am very grateful. I only had to spend one night at the hospital and I had the loveliest nurses. But, my God almighty, I have never experienced headaches like that! I spent the night riding waves of intense nausea mixed with the most brutal headaches. They gave me morphine which helped the pain – a bit – but made the nausea worse. And as with all my recent medical experiences, there was an absurd quality to it: the patient next to me had an odd, bedazzled female visitor who was blasting Celine Dion while performing a weird interpretive dance – in an ICU style recovery room – r u kidding me?!

The doctors wrote me a prescription for Percocet to help with my headaches, which are supposed to last for a few days. For some reason I felt deep shame picking up the drugs – I felt like a low-life! I was paranoid that I would become addicted and that I would end up like Nurse Jackie, doing anything to secure my next high. Once home though, the drugs were a godsend and I spent most of the day in a loopy sleep dreaming of Iron Maiden – who were dressed like Wizards! – flying through the sky.

Editor’s Note: A special thanks goes out to my cancer! Had I not been in the hospital being treated for Mesothelioma – where I ended up with “Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome” after a bad reaction to the drug Haldol – I never would have had my brain scanned and my aneurysm would have gone untreated. So thank you Mesothelioma!

Nurse Jackie is one of my favorite shows. A couple weeks ago I finished watching the show; didn’t want it to end.

***SPOILER***

Loved this clip where character Gloria Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith) is looking for a new job and the woman who is interviewing her doesn’t care about Akalitus’ life experience; the employer wants someone with a Master’s Degree.

Have you ever experience age discrimination while looking for a new job? It’s awful and so insulting.

I adore employers who hire human beings over 50-years-young.

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Wed, 06 Apr 2016 02:14:49 +0000Danielle Thttps://doseofdanielle247.wordpress.com/go/lifestyle/nurse-jackie/https://callmezoey.wordpress.com/go/uncategorized/lpwhat/
Wed, 23 Mar 2016 04:19:52 +0000callmezoeyhttps://callmezoey.wordpress.com/go/uncategorized/lpwhat/I just recently finished LPN school! I passed the NCLEX on March 2nd, I was offered a job, which I accepted at a small 14 bed hospital about 15 minutes away from my hometown. I did very well in LPN school. I graduated 2nd in my class, but how I passed the NCLEX still blows my mind. I had the minimum amount of questions, and wasn't 100% sure I got any of them correct. I didn't study like I should had, or had planned to. I had a great study plan over the two weeks between scheduling my test, and my test date. However I binged watched Nurse Jackie on Netflix instead of studying. That bitch didn't teach me anything useful, but I loved it anyways! (hints the call me Zoey reference) I'm waiting on my background check to come back and then I start my first real nursing job. I have worked as a CNA/CMA before, but I am excited to start this new chapter of my life! I'm funny, vulgar, very inappropriate, and would love for you to follow me on my new adventure. It takes a special kind of person to get my sense of humor, so if anything I say offends you fuck off! Your shitty comments are welcome, as well as encouraging ones I will definitely blog about anything worth reading whether it be funny, sad, or one my fuck ups.

On top of being a new nurse I have a 3 year old daughter at home, she is my favorite thing in the world! She has the attitude of a 16 year old, and that makes her kind of an ass sometimes, but I wouldn't have it any other way! I also have an amazing boyfriend we have been together for almost 10 years. Yes! we will get married one of these days I think...I have a fat rock on my finger anyways. However to buy me all the fancy things I want, and to support my jobless ass while I was in nursing school along with our daughter; he took a job down in Texas and is only home every other weekend. The plan was to come home when I graduated, but the oilfield has went to shit and here we are. I'm graduated, and he is still in Texas.. I feel like a single mom without the financial worry, I have to take care of everything my self! I'm not complaining.. Just living life. This blog will not only be about nursing, just my busy hectic life in general...

“What do you call a nurse with a bad back? Unemployed,” and with a quote from T.S. Eliot and the music from Valley of the Dolls we begin the complex tale of Nurse Jackie, an emergency room nurse at All Saints Hospital, mother, wife and drug addict.

With brilliant storytelling, each half hour episode shows the lives of the men and women who are there for people experiencing “the worse day of their life.”

This award winning show was produced by Showtime and is now airing on Netflix where I happily binged all 7 seasons.

**SPOILER ALERT** If you haven’t seen it STOP READING AND START TO BINGE.

Humanity is a mess lot and Nurse Jackie gave us multidimensional characters that crashed and soared, sometimes simultaneously.

Nurse Jackie – Masterfully played by the highly nominated, award winning Edie Falco who also played in The Sopranos. Jackie is a sociopath and a drug addict, an unlikely heroine who tackles life on her own terms. Her greatest passion, besides opiates, is her desire to save lives.

Zoey Barkow – Played by Merritt Wever (who is now Dr. Denise on The Walking Dead), Zoey makes an amazing journey from nervous nursing student to a confident woman and accomplished nurse. In one storyline Zoey enters into a relationship with the very handsome Dr. Prentiss played by Morris Chestnut. The nervous nurse in bunny scrubs became a self-assured woman capable of attracting the hottest doctor on staff. Dr. Fitch

Cooper “Coop” – Played by Peter Facinelli is pretty much a buffoon who stumbles into some remarkable moments. Primarily comic relief, Coop suffers from a form of terrets syndrom where under stress he grabs the nearest breast – much to the dismay of the staff.

Gloria Akalitus – Played by Anna Deavere Smith is the ER Administrator who appears stuffy and rigid but under the right circumstances is as much a rule breaker as Jackie. One of my favorite episodes is where she assists Lana, a transgender patient, on how to cut corners and get assistance in health care.

Thor – Wonderful sarcastic Thor, a male nurse seaching for love and backing up Jackie’s every move. Played by the talented Stephen Wallem who put diabetes on TV.

My most memorable episode involved Wallem’s character. It was entitled Soul (Season 5 Ep 10). It involved Wally, a gay man with advanced liver cancer who had been 22 years sober and refused pain meds. As he dies Thor tells him how honored he is to be with him, because he was not just a survivor of the closet, stonewall, the plague but he survived it so elequontly. By the time Jackie gave him last rights I was sobbing uncontrolably. The episode ends with Thor singing a song for Wally at a local club.

The series ends with the hospital closing and everyone scattering. Jackie gets a job at another hospital and Zoey volunteers with Doctors Without Borders. Jackie keeps asking her to come with her but Zoey tells her that it’s time for them to part company. Basically Zoey has had enough of Jackie’s antics. The “I love you but not your behavior” speech.

As everyone is saying goodbye, Jackie goes into the ladies room and overdoses. She stumbles out and falls at the feet of her co-workers and friends.

This is where there is some contention. Some people believe that she doesn’t die but is saved, but I believe that Jackie does die.

Remember back in the first episode when Zoey called Jackie a saint? Jackie reflected that if she were a saint that she would be St. Augustine because he knew he had good in him but he also had some bad which he didn’t want to give up – just yet. Jackie says, “Make me good God, but not yet.” It’s poignant because she is thinking that as she talks with her husband, whom she is cheating on with the pharmacist who provides her with drugs. And as she thinks that, she steps back into the shadows.

In the end, in full view of everyone, Jackie is on the floor dying of an overdose. No more shadows, no more secrets. Zoey strokes her head and says, “You’re good.” not, “You’re going to be okay” but “you’re good.” It was Jackie’s time to be good. **Sob**

I have never heard of Nurse Jackie until I came across the show on my Netflix surfing. I had seen Edie Falco on 30 Rock though, as Cici the Congresswoman:

I marveled at her nuanced performance; I can hardly believe this is the same woman who played Jackie Peyton with all that swagger and New York brashness.

After the first episode, I couldn’t stop watching! Even my husband, who usually sits beside me in the couch working on his laptop caught more than a few episodes and actually began to understand the whole series.

It is so compelling in that it is like House– a stoned, functioning drug addict working in the health profession. They are very good at what they do, which is helping sick people get better. But no matter how big a difference they make in other people’s lives, they can’t seem to help themselves with their addiction. The irony is always present in every episode. Both House and Jackie Peyton possess a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners-or-BS attitude, making them hard to like as people. They are sarcastic, unapologetic jerks at times. The only difference is Jackie has more of a maternal side to her which shows when dealing with kids or anyone who appears to be vulnerable. She has a wellspring of empathy whereas House does not. Both of them however, would sometimes throw people under the bus to get their fix–even those people who care about them and whom they care for.

It’s strange that for how flawed these characters are, I somehow see myself both in their struggles to be better and in their ultimate failure at life. I can’t say that I can imagine the life of an addict but I somehow feel the struggle they must go through. The constant struggle to keep a normal, healthy life in the middle of their uncontrollable attraction to drugs. They want their cake and to eat it too. In the end though, you root for them–to get better, get past their addiction, or get away with their deceptions, score their poison of choice–painkillers. You root for them the whole time, because instinctively, with all their flaws, you like them. The writers did a great job in making the audience identify with these characters in a primitive level–without the clothes, the status, the outward veneer of normalcy and success–who we are as human beings. The constant threat of failure at every turn. That feeling of one breakdown away at losing everything you ever held dear.

Watching Jackie decline through her years of addiction and lose every precious relationship she had, watching her daughter grow apart from her, her marriage fail, her friendships destroyed it was an all too real picture of chronic addiction, it was a very moving experience for me. I felt the tip of what family members and caregivers must have gone through in dealing with addiction. It is a disease and it does ruin lives.

I really need to stop scrolling through this when I’m at my low points, it’s depressing af and it makes me worse

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Tue, 23 Feb 2016 21:51:25 +0000Samihttps://sdsurvivalguide.com/go/journal/how-to-survive-your-own-overwhelming-laziness/I took a Tuesday off, thinking, I can miss one post per month without having to say anything. Then, of course, I got hit by a nasty stomach bug that wiped me out for a week and missed another post. I couldn’t bear to eat anything with more calories than a shot of NyQuil. I did not find my diet of MLP and liquid flu medicine productive of anything more than fevered tosses and turns, let alone an entertaining essay to publish on the internet.

Apparently my cure to feeling like a lump for losing a week to illness is to lump around some more for an entire weekend. I didn’t go out. I just watched an entire season of a medical drama with compelling characters, solid plot, and surprisingly good cinematography.

I have a living cat blanket; I couldn’t possibly move

I’m not the kind of person who can ever feel good about wasting a day. Yet I do waste days. Endlessly. Perhaps if I berate myself, the guilt will compel me to quit reading Dear Prudence articles on my smartphone and sit in front of a Google Doc. Sami, sami — this is terrible. You just spent 1 hour and 45 minutes reading advice columns. All you need to do is crank out 750 words today to feel good about yourself. On a good day, you can do this in 26 minutes. So how can you justify 1 hour and 45 minutes reading DP? You’re not even going to retain any of that information! Not even well enough to retell a single story of a desperate and advice-needing life at one of your parties… Not even well enough to mention something you read as a useful anecdote. Sami. Why do you suck so, so, so much?

Of course, then I feel so very, very terrible about myself that there’s no way I can do anything at all. I must make myself feel better with an episode of Nurse Jackie.

Yes, I can often survive my own laziness with some self care and positive thinking.

Remember that one week you were, like, really fucking productive? You can do it anytime. It’s just not this week. This week, you’re watching Nurse Jackie.

Nobody is paying that close of attention to you. Just watch another episode of Nurse Jackie, it’s fine

Existentialism. Fatalism. Everyone dies. There is no afterlife. When you’re in the ground, you aren’t going to regret that you wasted most of a weekend watching Netflix, because you wont be able to feel anything, just like you won’t be able to feel the worms eating your flesh. So just watch another episode of Nurse Jackie, it’s fine.

You just got out of a breakup, man. Losing someone you were with for 5 years is hard. You should go easy on yourself and just watch another episode of Nurse Jackie.

Just one more episode, then you’ll go for an inspirational walk. I mean but, these episodes are only 26 minutes long. Who’s counting? Two episodes.

Today is a cheat day. Tomorrow will be better. All the episodes now, all the productivity later.

Once you finish the whole thing, then it can’t tempt you any more. This is a good plan.

If I ever figure out how to defeat my laziness and be the Sami that can write 66 thousand words in 8 months (she exists…in 2014) then I will let you know. In the meantime, I’m going to reward myself for getting my blog post done before 2pm. Nurse Jackie!

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Sun, 21 Feb 2016 02:46:03 +0000Fasti cuiusdam neminishttps://fasticuiusdamneminis.wordpress.com/go/deep-thoughts/saturday-night/Sitting in my study (kind of an ironic term in my case . . . I’d prefer to call it simply “my room,” but that tends to imply “bedroom”). Listening to music, surfing the net, doing nothing of consequence. Feeling lonely, but more melancholy than depressed. Picturing myself going out to some bar, sitting alone, maybe at the bar itself. Watching groups of friends being friends with each other. Not some bullshit college bar like Cornerstone or “Turf,” as they call that other place that used to be Santa Fe. And then somehow, without getting out of my seat, someone comes up to me and we become best friends forever. What is wrong with me? Would it kill me to make an effort? Dr. _______ keeps suggesting I join some kind of group, community, whatever, be it Jewish or gay or something else. I signed up awhile ago for that website, I think it’s meetup.com, but there wasn’t much around that appealed to me, and I finally turned off the email notifications. Maybe I should try again.

Started watching “Nurse Jackie” on Netflix last night. The gay Arab character is kinda hot. I just looked him up though, and saw he only did the first season. Oh well. The husband is cute too. I was thinking I should live in New York. More gays and more Italians, and there’s got to be some overlap. Not to mention more of every other ethnicity you can possibly think of. Who knows, maybe Joseph is the start of a new grecophile phase in my fantasy sex life. Why did I write “fantasy”? I’ve had a not insignificant number of Latino encounters. Yeah, but how many of them were satisfying or fulfilling in any way? Actually . . . quite a few. Somewhat, anyway. Hmm. I feel like most members of highly specific national or ethnic groups are buried deep in the closet, though. But with the advent of the internet, and then grindr, well . . . yeah, I’ve actually hooked up with a lot of deeply closeted guys. The deeper in the closet, the more I want ’em.

I hate New York though. There’s a part of me that wants to be there for awhile and experience it, and I think I would actually really like it in many ways. But whenever I’m there, I feel a bit claustrophobic. I mean, here in the DC area, it’s very easy and quick to escape to the quiet countryside. Manhattan? Not so much. I mean, yeah, but it takes longer . . . Plus Manhattan’s a fucking island. Is it even possible to walk off it? How may points of egress are there that are accessible to foot traffic? And how many of those begin and terminate in places where I won’t get mugged? (By the way, yes, I am aware that there are 4 other boroughs.)

Dating an Italian-American New Yorker would be seriously hot though. Yes, I know they’re not all as stunning as they are on TV, but then Joseph’s not exactly a stunner either. Conventional “hot” is not really my thing. Anyway, I’d prefer someone not completely attached to city life like Woody Allen in Manhattan. Someone who’s not afraid of or turned off by the country, and who doesn’t feel disdain towards middle America. (Most of the people who live there are people I feel disdain for, but that’s not the same as not liking the place. A crazy former acquaintance I’m not even going to bother to create a fake name for once commented on some Utah-related facebook post of mine something to the effect of Dude, you do not want to go to Utah; to which I replied something like Yes I do. I‘ve been. I loved it. It’s beautiful. True, I do not want to hang out with a group of Mormon rednecks, but I do want to go hiking in Zion National Park (I already have, in fact).)

Nurse Jackie is an American medical dark satirical comedy-drama series. It premiered on Showtime on June 8, 2009.[1][2] The show’s seventh and final season premiered on April 12, 2015.[3] The series finale aired on June 28, 2015.

The show starred Edie Falco as the title character Jackie Peyton, an emergency department nurse at All Saints’ Hospital in New York City.[2][4][5][6] For Jackie, “every day is a high wire act of juggling patients, doctors, fellow nurses, and her own indiscretions.”[7]

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Tue, 09 Feb 2016 13:10:38 +0000Lizzyhttps://adepeca.wordpress.com/go/uncategorized/family-time/This post is taking me a lot longer to write than my other posts. Its hard for me to talk about family. It is because my family is mine. No one will see my family like I have/do. Even with a million stories you will never understand… Its because I am a really bad story-teller, ever since I was a kid.

I really like telling stories about my cat and she has gone and done it again.

My cat reopened her stitches. On Monday, I got the pleasure of taking my cat back to the vet. When the Vet saw me we had the same reaction to the laceration,”But I was looking so good”. The cut looked so nasty and I was so mad that she got hurt again. It has been only about three weeks since her last trip to stitch her up. The last trip to the vet she was kept 24-hrs, but this time, she is going to be staying at the vet for 5 days to make sure she heals properly.

Later on that night My mom and I got to have so family time watching Nurse Jackie.

Family time is when you spend time with your family. It can be anything from going out to the park or playing board games to watching TV. When it comes to my family we usually watch TV or Netflix. As you may know from reading past posts I love watching Netflix. At this point in time I am simultaneously watching Nurse Jackie, Mad Men and New Girl. However, I am watching nurse Jackie with my mom. Watching this show gives us time to laugh away the day and comment on the cast of characters on that show. This gave me the time to just relax and to keep my mind off my cat.

WC:305

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Tue, 09 Feb 2016 02:02:17 +0000Hannah Levinhttps://masterchatmag.com/go/hollywood/the-magicians-arjun-gupta-reveals-his-tricks/Being an actor is very similar to being a magician. Both trades require you to suspend reality. They ask you to create illusions and put on awe-inspiring shows. They often deem you geeky in high school. Arjun Gupta is currently exploring both professions as the star of Syfy’s new show The Magicians. Gupta plays “Penny” is the, the farthest thing from a geek Television’s ever seen; he’s a badass a grad student at Brakebills University—a secret school for budding magicians. Magician “Penny” and the actor who plays him, Gupta, are extremely good at what they do. With skill and focus both men give captivating performances from which you can’t look away. And while a magician can never reveal their secrets, there’s no rule about actors sharing their tricks. In this interview, that’s just what Arjun Gupta does.

When did you catch the acting bug?

I actually didn’t start acting until high school. But once I did I realized it was the only part of the day I was excited about and so I thought, maybe I should pursue this. And crazily I did.

Did anyone or anything inspire you to pursue a career as an actor?

I think my experience working on stage at school got me started—then the incredible teachers I had at the Stella Adler Conservatory and the Experimental Theatre Wing really inspired me. They showed me the power of art and how transformative it could be. That really set the foundation for what I wanted to do in my career and the kind of artist I wanted to be.

What training did you do to help set you up for a successful career?

Everything! I had incredible acting training as I said before, but being a good actor means looking at the world and living. Stella Adler has a famous quote, to which I subscribe, “Growth as a person is Growth as an Actor.” So every day that I live I am training. I do want to shout out Richie Jackson here. He taught a class at NYU while I was there which was preparing for the profession and he taught us to approach our career as if we would have a long career. It was a huge lesson in not approaching our career from a place of fear.

Damn, now you got me feeling all grateful so I want to shout out two other huge factors for my success for far and hopefully my continued success: my family and Elise Konialian. My family for their support and having my back completely through this wild ride. And Elise, my manager, who has helped me grow as much as anyone else in my life.

Your “big break” was on Nurse Jackie. What was the biggest thing you learned on that set?

Oh man, I call Nurse Jackie my grad school, so the more appropriate question is, “What DIDN’T I learn on that set?” If I had to pick a biggest thing I learnt it was how to be a true professional. I had incredible [role] models on that set who showed me how to work and lead with grace and openness.

Arjun Gupta and Edie Falco in Nurse Jackie

Now you’re on The Magicians! How did that job come about?

Bribes. No, I am kidding. I had worked with Sera Gamble before on a pilot and then got the appointment to audition for this project. I just auditioned and hoped.

Penny is a very complicated guy. What work did you do to try to understand his emotional life?

All people are complicated because the human experience is complicated. So I did the same work with Penny that I do with all characters: break down who he is. I worked hard to understand the effects of someone who had been kicked out of [his] home that young. I am also fortunate that with my theatre company we work with homeless youth. Working with that community allowed for insight that I tried to apply to the work.

Arjun Gupta as “Penny” and Rick Worthy as “Dean” in The Magicians

The show’s cinematography is super dynamic and there are a lot of special effects. If at all, how do those complexities affect the work you do as an actor?

We are blessed with an incredible DP in Elie Smolkin and a great special effects team run by Darren Marcoux that strip away any complexities we may face. We are so blessed that these guys make our jobs much easier!

You’re the co-founder of Ammunition Theatre Company(Ammo). Can you talk a bit about the work that goes into building and maintaining a theater company?

You know it doesn’t feel like work when it’s a group of like-minded people working together on something you believe in. Yes, there are immense challenges and obstacles we face. But, I have been stunned and continue to be so by the amount that can be achieved and accomplished when we strip away ego and work collaboratively. I could talk for hours about the logistical setup that is required and the mistakes we have learnt from, but the main key to building and maintaining a theatre company or anything is this: passion and shared vision combined with lack of ego and collaboration.

Ammo has such a great mission statement. What’s your specific criteria for choosing the shows the company produces to fulfill that mission?

Our criteria is quite simple, tell stories from communities that aren’t being heard. We want to foster original works and re-imagine classics to bring light to communities who have been in the dark. Our next play we’ll produce The Judgment of Fools by Bernardo Cubría hit on all those points. It is a highly theatrical piece that engages the audience to confront the biases and prejudices they bring to their daily life…

What’s your advice for aspiring actors?

Build a craft. Craft allows for the potential of a long career. And stop trying to be liked or right, court failure. ♦

Don’t miss Arjun in a new episode of The Magicians tonight on Syfy at 9/8c!

Get tickets to The Judgment of Fools, Ammo’s first full-length production, February 18th thru March 12th,Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm at the Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles, CA.

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Wed, 03 Feb 2016 20:13:00 +0000haleyncummingshttps://haleynoelleblog.wordpress.com/go/entertainment/reviews/weekly-review-nurse-jackie-2009-2015/An ER nurse depends on prescription medications to deal with patients, doctors, other nurses, and her own personal life in this Showtime drama.

This review will talk about the entire series, which spanned 7 seasons.

American television is no stranger to the idea of the anti-hero or to protagonists who resort to actions which may be illegal or questionable. We’ve seen it in Breaking Bad, Weeds, and in an example that’s similar to Nurse Jackie, House M. D. Make no mistake though, Dr. Gregory House, while similar, is nothing like Jackie Peyton.

In Nurse Jackie, our protagonist is a drug addict, and the show portrays the struggles of addiction vividly. Jackie is manipulative, self serving, and always thinking of her next high. I’ve seen some interpretations of her character that claim she may have borderline personality disorder. Needless to say, some viewers may not find the main character likable.

While progressing through the series, I found myself constantly disappointed in Jackie, similar to her friends and family on the show. I was appalled by the lengths that she would go and the bridges she’d burn to keep her addiction going. By the end of the seventh season, I was mentally exhausted, as if I knew Jackie personally.

That’s probably one of the best things about Nurse Jackie. It’s very realistic. I felt incredibly invested in the characters and their interactions. It shows the bonds that longtime co-workers form with each other and the lengths that friends will go to for each other. I’m surprised I heard so little about the show while it was airing. The show did receive critical acclaim. Edie Falco, who portrays Jackie, won an Emmy for her performance. Falco and Nurse Jackie were nominated for other Emmy Awards, SAG Awards, and Golden Globes. It really is quite good.

An interesting aspect to this particular series is that the episodes are only 30 minutes in length. This allows for the show to pack enough drama into each individual episode without relying on many fillers. This sitcom format may make you think that Nurse Jackie is a comedy, but don’t be fooled. While there are some comedic moments, this is a drama through and through.

Keep in mind that Nurse Jackie is a Showtime series, so it doesn’t hold back on risqué topics. It’s chock full of drugs, sex, and bad decisions. Definitely not one for the kids.

For me personally, I was never a big fan of Jackie herself. While the performance was incredible, her character was not the reason I continued watching the show. Jackie is surrounded by a lot of really compelling characters that drew me in and kept me for the long haul.

Some of my personal favorite characters included Dr. O’Hara (Eve Best), a British doctor and Jackie’s best friend, Gloria Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith), a hospital administrator who tries to keep the ER running, and Zoey Barkow (Merritt Wever), a young, fresh out of college nurse.

There are a variety of other characters that are incredibly interesting as well. Dr. Cooper is pretty fascinating. When the series begins, “Coop” (Peter Facinelli) is incredibly pompous, inexperienced, and ridiculous, but as the show comes to a close, he’s grown into a very capable doctor. Thor (Stephen Wallem), a fellow nurse in the ER, is very likable as well.

All of the characters listed above are mainly seen in the hospital setting, and that’s really only half of Jackie’s problems. Her home life is a bit of a mess as well, as she hides her drug habit from her husband, Kevin (Dominic Fumusa), and her two daughters, Grace and Fiona (Ruby Jerins and Mackenzie Aladjem). *Fiona is portrayed by Daisy Tahan in season 1.

I mentioned earlier that one of the best things about Nurse Jackie was the realism in character interactions. Actual nurses would probably disagree. The realism of being a nurse isn’t entirely there. Sometimes it’s incredibly hard to swallow the types of things that Jackie gets away with in a hospital setting. Jackie violates the Nurse’s Code of Ethics, and almost always gets away with it. That part isn’t realistic. Needless to say, it sparked some controversy with the New York State Nurses Association.

Overall, I think it’s worth it to give Nurse Jackie a chance. While it does become emotionally exhausting as the series goes on, it is a good visualization of the cost of addiction, both on the addict and those that love them. The series goes on just long enough to get its point across. Any longer, and the show may have overstayed its welcome.

If you’re interested in watching this show, I’d definitely give it a chance. The entire series is available on Netflix. Each season is between 10-12 30 minute episodes, so it’s not too hard to see an episode or two to see if it’s for you.

Below is a short scene that includes Jackie, Akalitus, Zoey and Dr. Cooper.

It took me a little over a month to get through the seven seasons of Nurse Jackie on Netflix. (Each episode ran about 25 minutes minus recaps and opening, so it wasn’t all that hard.) Funny how the last two shows Edie Falco had a starring role each had ambiguous endings, isn’t it?

It got me thinking about the power of addiction, something I haven’t really spent a lot of time in my life thinking about.

I have known people in my life who were alcoholics and drug users. It doesn’t make these people bad per se, I just think that you have a government and a country that wants people medicated, for whatever reason, conspiratorial or otherwise. The main motivation being financial, I guess. Explains why we have a “Big Pharma” and a “Big Alcohol” lobby up in D.C. that owns the politicians along with other lobbies usually sporting the word “Big” behind whatever cause they choose to bastardize.

To be honest, I sometimes take sleeping pills in the wintertime when the weather is “cold” here, especially on the nights and mornings when it’s too cold to turn a fan on, and too warm to turn on the heat. While I wake up in a bit of a fog in the morning when I do this, it also makes me think a bit cleaner (or so I think) and knocks down that “filter” in my head that prevents me from saying or doing mainly the wrong things.

In another Sopranos parallel, I was reading that a nurses association in New York was critical of how the Jackie Peyton character was a drug user. That reminded me of the whole hullabaloo over how Italian-Americans criticized the HBO mafia show about a mob boss with panic attacks. Just as it is ridiculous to think there are not Italian-Americans who are in organized crime, it is equally ridiculous to think there aren’t nurses out there that may smoke a little pot or snort some cocaine from time to time.

It was a good show, though. Anything Edie Falco is involved in usually is.